Buying Next Year’s Curricula

‘Tis the season for most homeschoolers to purchase their curricula for the next school year.

How about you?

I just received an email from a friend and fellow pioneer homeschooler. She has been attending homeschool bookfairs and she wrote the following sad note:

“I have been attending lots of HS conventions lately and the focus is on earning credit hours…”

Most of you know that one of my favorite people is John Gatto, who spent 30 years as a New York inner-city public school teacher. After being presented with the NY State Teacher-of-the Year Award, Gatto had this to say to homeschooing parents:

“If you want to know how to educate a child, find out what the public school does and dosomethingelse.”

The problem is most homeschoolers would not know what else to do.

That is why I wrote my latest book, Gifted: Raising Children Intentionally. In the book—and in the spirit of Gatto’s comment to us homeschoolers—I take each subject and provide practical ideas of how to dosomethingelse.

Am I suggesting you don’t need to follow the pattern of the public schools even though most curricula (including homeschooling curricula) does just that!

That is exactly what I am suggesting. Why? Because you have been called to do something higher than simply preparing your children for a job or for college. Jobs and college are byproducts of the higher things we have been called to do with our kids.

Here is a quote from my book:

“High school graduation requirements drive most homeschooling parents to take the [traditional] Scope & Sequence seriously even if they have not taken it seriously until High School. After all, how can a child graduate until he has satisfied the requirements for graduation?”

In my book, I answer this question…

The Kindle version of my book is less than $10.00. Please do yourself a favor and read it before you spend lots of money on graded, subject-specific curricula. The book is available at Amazon in both paperback and as an e-book.

You can also visit my website ChrisDavisRecommends where I have placed all the curricula and homeschooling materials I recommend:

Have a great summer (and consider joining me in Israel this year)
Chris Davis

The new book is FABULOUS! You gifted me with it (at the Lord’s prompting!) a few weeks ago at a friend’s house and it has blessed me tremendously. My husband is reading it now because I wouldn’t stop talking about everything in it. 🙂 I’ll email a more detailed thank-you note soon, but wanted to give an endorsement here that I believe it would be a great read for any parent. I plan to gift several friends with them.